Commonwealth v. Obi

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex

September 21, 2016

COMMONWEALTHv.DAISY OBI.

Heard: January 8, 2016.

Complaint
received and sworn to in the Somerville Division of the
District Court Department on August 28, 2012. The case was
tried before Paul M. Yee, Jr., J., and a motion for
resentencing was heard by him.

The
Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the
case from the Appeals Court.

The
defendant, a landlord, was convicted of assault and battery
after pushing a tenant who is Muslim down a flight of stairs.
The defendant was sentenced to a term of incarceration of two
years in a house of correction, six months to serve, with the
balance suspended for a period of two years. The judge
imposed two special conditions of probation during the period
of suspension: that the defendant provide a written
disclosure to prospective tenants that she had been convicted
of assaulting a tenant and had had several harassment
prevention orders issued against her; and that the defendant
attend an introductory class on Islam. A single justice of
the Appeals Court stayed execution of the defendant's
sentence pending this appeal.

The
defendant contends that imposition of this length of a period
of incarceration, and the special conditions of probation,
would violate her constitutional rights under both the
Federal and State Constitutions. She also asserts error in a
number of the judge's rulings at trial. We conclude that
the judge did not abuse his discretion in imposing the
sentence of incarceration or in requiring the defendant to
provide written disclosure to prospective tenants as a
condition of probation. We do not address the defendant's
constitutional objections to being required to attend the
class on Islam as a condition of probation, which were not
raised in the trial court. We further conclude that the
judge's other contested rulings were not error.
Accordingly, we affirm.

1.
Trial proceedings.

We
recite the facts the jury could have found, reserving certain
details for later discussion. The defendant, a septuagenarian
Christian minister, owns a three-family apartment building in
Somerville, where she lives on the second floor. At the time
of trial, the defendant had been a landlord for almost twenty
years. Gilhan Suliman, a Muslim woman, leased the third-floor
apartment from the defendant on a short-term basis from April
1, 2012, through August 31, 2012; she lived there with her
husband and five children.

The
relationship between the defendant and Suliman soured over
the course of Suliman's short tenancy. Suliman contacted
the defendant multiple times to complain that there was no
electricity or heat in her apartment. The defendant, for her
part, complained that Suliman and her family were too noisy,
and that more people were living in Suliman's apartment
than were permitted under the terms of her lease, an
allegation that Suliman denied. At one point, the defendant
attempted to raise Suliman's rent to compensate for
Suliman's purportedly excessive water usage. In addition,
the defendant served Suliman with a notice to quit, asserting
that the additional occupants violated the terms of
Suliman's lease.[2]

The
animosity between the defendant and Suliman, however, went
beyond typical landlord-tenant issues. According to Suliman,
the defendant also made disparaging remarks to Suliman about
her religious beliefs. One night in May, 2012, the defendant
stood on the stairs outside of Suliman's apartment,
screaming about "how Muslims are, they should be burned
in hell, and how [the] prophet should be burned in
hell." On another occasion, in June, 2012, after
accusing Suliman's children of throwing trash in the
street, the defendant shouted that they were "wicked
kids" and "evil." She added, "[B]ecause
they are Muslims . . . they will be delivered in hell."
Suliman reported the latter incident to police.

The
confrontation that resulted in the defendant's conviction
in this case occurred on August 28, 2012, three days before
Suliman's lease was to terminate. That morning, as
Suliman was walking up the stairs to the second floor of the
apartment building on the way up to her third-floor
apartment, the defendant accosted her. The defendant was
upset because she believed that Suliman had been ringing her
doorbell. According to Suliman, however, construction
workers, not she, had rung the bell, in connection with work
that they were doing in the neighborhood. The defendant
shouted, "Get out of my house, " and pushed
Suliman, who fell down approximately fifteen to twenty
stairs, hitting her face on a railing. As a result of the
fall, Suliman cut her lip and tore a ligament in her
shoulder. Suliman immediately telephoned the police. When a
police officer arrived at the scene, Suliman's lip was
bleeding and she appeared to be in pain.[3] Both Suliman and
her children were crying. The officer placed the defendant
under arrest in connection with the incident.

2.
Procedural posture.

The
defendant was charged with one count of violating an abuse
prevention order, in violation of G. L. c. 209A, § 7,
and one count of assault and battery, in violation of G. L.
c. 265, § 13A (a.) . After a series of pretrial hearings
and a period of pretrial probation, a one-day jury trial was
conducted in the District Court on April 23, 2014, on the
charge of assault and battery. The Commonwealth filed a nolle
prosequi with respect to the charged violation of an abuse
prevention order.[4]

The
defendant's theory of the case was that Suliman was
"the tenant from Hell." During her testimony, the
defendant denied that she had pushed Suliman down the stairs,
and maintained that she was in her apartment praying when
police knocked on her door and arrested her. The defendant
argued that Suliman had maneuvered to have her arrested in
order to stave off being evicted for having too many people
living in her apartment. In support of this view, the
defendant emphasized that Suliman repeatedly had called the
police to complain about the defendant, and that Suliman had
filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against
Discrimination alleging that the defendant had sought to
evict her because of her religion. The defendant denied ever
shouting at Suliman or her children, and denied that there
were any issues with the hot water or electricity in
Suliman's apartment.

The
jury found the defendant guilty of assault and battery. The
judge requested a mental health evaluation in aid of
sentencing, and ultimately sentenced the defendant on June 2,
2014. On June 3, 2014, the defendant sought postconviction
relief, filing a notice of appeal and a motion to be
resentenced by a different judge. After a hearing on June 10,
2014, the trial judge denied the motion for resentencing. On
July 17, 2014, a single justice of the Appeals Court allowed
the defendant's motion for a stay of execution of
sentence, and directed the District Court to enter an order
...

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